| Townlands are the smallest administrative division
and on average covers about 350 acres. It is the most ancient geographical
unit in Ireland and the one in which researchers struggle to identify when
searching for their ancestors. Many townlands share the same name. The
townland was named at an early period and often the name was derived from
some local physical feature or landmark such as a mountain, bog, forest,
a village, or a church. The townland became standardized as the unit of
measurement during the seventeenth century surveys. The townland names
were originally in Irish Gaelic, but they became modified as a result of
English speaking clerks writing the names as they heard them, using the
Latin alphabet to approximate Gaelic word sounds. |
County
Clare
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